A review by annagerman
Midnight Is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

True blood meets true detective. Part psychological thriller, part dark romance, part southern gothic fairy tale - this book combines so many elements from different genres to create immaculate dark creepy vibes. The writing is really immersive and detailed. 

I loved Ruth and Ever, they truly felt like complex flawed humans with a believable love and relationship.
Ruth's "corruption" arc was wonderfully structured and paced.
Some of the description of Ever were particularly... Tasty 😩

The weakest point of the book for me was the character of Reverent Cornier. Similarly to the character of Don Rockwell in the last housewife, I feel like the author's "charismatic larger-than-life male leader" characters fall kinda short. Their magnetism is more tell than show. 

There were one plotpoint that sort of felt out of place (the biker gang shoot-out was both unnecessary and over-the-top imo). Also a few of the referrals were a bit lazy (Microfilm? Reporter phonecall? 😓)
But those are minor complaints in the greater scheme of things out.

I personally don't mind open endings, so I was fine with it. It definetly had me frantically searching for more pages and making sure I didn't skip any somehow. I think the characters reached their conclusions and there wasn't much point in dragging it out.
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